India ready to import gas for electricity: Goyal

The Dollar Business Bureau

India is willing to import a minimum of 70-80 mmscm (million metric standard cubic metres) of natural gas from global exporters for its gas-based power plants, if the country is able to get long-term gas at ‘affordable’ rates, said Piyush Goyal, Minister of State for Power, Coal and Renewable Energy.

“The Government of India is ready to procure at least 70 to 80 mmscmd of natural gas from worldwide suppliers if they are willing to supply long-term at affordable rates. This will enable the country to operate its idle gas-based power plants,” said Goyal, while speaking at a conference on ‘The Future of Electricity’ held in New Delhi.

“We will adopt newer technologies to make our coal-based power creation cleaner and create a pool of funds for research on technologies in green energy with participation from public sector enterprises, in which private sector too can participate,” he added.

The Power Minister said that India’s electricity future rests on the pillars of sustainability, affordability and energy security.

“India will see the demand of electricity consumption grow fourfold to about 4 trillion units by 2030, from the current 1.1 trillion units,” he said.

Goyal further said that in spite of the massive roll out schemes related to energy efficiency, India will likely see a jump of 10 percent, on a year-on-year basis, in the growth of electricity in the coming 15-16 years.

The increasing personal incomes of citizens and the focus on domestic manufacturing activity will considerably enhance power consumption, he added.

“Today, the electricity sector in India is possibly offering the biggest business opportunity the world over. Therefore, India is a major destination providing a huge growth trajectory in the consumption of electricity”, he said.

Goyal informed that India has a target of generating power capacity of 175 Gigawatt (GW) through renewable energy by 2022, out of that 100 GW is to come solely from solar energy. Currently, the solar power capacity of India is at 6.7 GW, and will reach 20 GW by 2017.

“Since the solar energy power sector is on smooth trajectory, government will now emphasise on promoting wind power and hydropower capacity,” he added.